ZoomConcept Reviews
Minor Problem on The Home Page 1 This a slide? Controls? If not, don't be put off the idea of using one 2 This looks a little boring. How can we keep the simplicity yet make it a bit more interesting? You could use an accordion? -
Sarah Kettell commented:Hmm. Accordion? You mean like make it so that the 3 boxes expand when clicked on?
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Michael Gunner commented:Yup. It's a neat way of presenting content
Minor Problem on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 How will your design handle images and videos? -
Maite Picado commented:Sarah, here is a link that you may find useful for your blog design: http://tutslist.com/excellent-collection-of-grid-based-wordpress-themes/
2 Is there meant to be this little meta data? Consider including category etc, it allows for easier browsing -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Ooh. Good idea. That slipped my mind.
Serious Problem on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 Sarah, when you code this, use HTML5 place holders and a fall back for old browsers. Then on new browsers the labels are inside the form fields, allowing a for a cleaner crisper design, I think you'll appreciate the end result :) also make sure you use the new HTML5 type=email as this means on mobile devices the keyboards are adjusted (to automatically include an @ key etc) -
Rebecca Perry commented:totally agree :-)
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Sarah Kettell commented:
Awesome suggestion! :)
New Idea on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 nth child css3? 2 Breadcrumbs here? Good for SEO and ease of navigation. New Idea on Standard Category/List of Posts Page 1 AJAX loading? Won't effect SEO if you do it properly either :P -
Sarah Kettell commented:
I don't have any experience with AJAX yet, sadly. :\
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Sarah Kettell commented:
Buuut, I can look into it!
2 How about having a featured post here too? Or perhaps just give the first one more space and a featured image Summary:
If this is more of an exercise for you, then great. But of you're looking for something to sell, it needs to do something differently to other layouts. As it stands, it's too conventional, and too similar to the thousands of simple minimalist blog layouts already out there. I appreciate the desire to make it no frills but that doesn't mean you can't present the content in a more intuitive, different, manner than every other blog template. Consider the use of AJAX and HTML5 and CSS3 techniques to make your design stand out from the crowd. As this is a wireframe, this is your perfect opportunity to experiment more with the layout and worry less about colour and styling. I'd love to see you go back, do some more, and come back with something that retains your ambitions of simplicity yet is creative and imaginative. Good luck! :)
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Sarah Kettell commented:
Hi Michael. :)
Thanks for the advice. You're right, this is mostly an exercise. I'm actually in the middle of studying HTML5 and CSS3 and wanted something to use to start applying that kind of coding. I've done some WordPress CMS stuff before and thought it was a good platform to play with. Basically, this theme will be a free one that I'll be giving away..with the bonus that I can add it to my portfolio. :)
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Sarah Kettell commented:
I could post on every note that it's a good idea, but it seems redundant. So I'll just stick to saying that you gave me some AWESOME advice all around. Thanks. :)
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Minor Problem on Standard Category/List of Posts Page 1 Could be interesting if you list the last 5 posts that are related to each category New Idea on The Home Page 1 Include associated tags and post date for this content. Summary:
In general I think that it's extreamly simple; it doesn't mean that is wrong but some important things could be sacrified in minimal designs, especially the usable ones. I suggest you to find blogs that you'll be interested and try to understand as a user what information is important and apply that to your concept.
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Sarah Kettell commented:
Thanks!
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Positive Feature on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 The paragraphs are very wide, which can make it more difficult to read. This website has an overview of readability guidlines online: http://www.kerryr.net/webwriting/index.htm -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Thanks! That looks really interesting. :)
New Idea on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 I would put the 'Leave a comment' box before the actual comments. If it's a popular article I would like to be able to comment right away instead of having to scroll down to the bottom of the page (which might take a long time if it has many comments). -
Sarah Kettell commented:
That's the second suggestion for this, so I may do that. Either that or a very prominent link that jumps right down to the leave a comment section.
2 Think about a way to display comments that reply on previous comment. It can be very useful. -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Good idea. Even just a slight indent on the left might work for that.
Summary:
Nice attempt.
Try considering a sidebar with categories/related tags/articles and sharing-options. Although most of these can also be placed between the article- and the comment-section.
I'm looking forward to your actual design. Good luck.
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Sarah Kettell commented:
Thank you. :)
I'm trying to stay away from the normal 2 column design for a change. Having categories/related tags/articles underneath the post is actually not a bad idea. I might play around with that.
When this is complete I might make an alternative version with a sidebar, depending on how the design actually comes out.
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Minor Problem on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 In the "Leave a Comment" form, there's NAME, EMAIL and WEBSITE. I understand that name will be shown where the name is, and maybe this name would be a link to a commenter Email. But where's the commenter's website URL? -
Sarah Kettell commented:
The name would link to the website, not the email. :) Normally emails would be kept private.
2 Also, I would switch "Leave a Comment" and actual comments. Because if there would be a lot of comments, I would have to scroll all the way down the page to find that form. That's not cool. -
Sarah Kettell commented:
I considered this, actually. A lot of sites seem to have it set up this way, though. Maybe a link to leave a comment after the post would work ,as well?
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Valentin Spitsyn commented:Yeah, the link might work. It wouldn't be useless, that's for sure.
New Idea on The Home Page 1 I would make this a tag cloud. -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Great idea! I wasn't really sure what to put in those boxes and figured it'd change when I was actually designing it. Tag cloud's good.
2 Also I would put the "recent posts" below the Featured one. Since I proposed the use of a tag list or cloud. -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Also not a bad idea. :)
New Idea on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 You forgot the image :) or video, or whatever. Some media. -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Wasn't too worried about that at this stage of wireframe, cause not ALL posts always have media..depending on the blog. :) But that is always very easy to add in later on.
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Valentin Spitsyn commented:
Yeah I know :) Sometimes being "lazy" can save you some time.
New Idea on Standard Category/List of Posts Page 1 Add an image to one of those posts. The use of images in post excerpts is fair, isn't it? :) -
Sarah Kettell commented:
Right! I was going to make an alternative version of this with images for the posts. Totally forgot. Thanks.
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Valentin Spitsyn commented:
No prob.
Summary:
It's quite simple so far. In fact it's too simple and needs a couple of improvements.
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Minor Problem on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 There are a lot of rounded rectangles on this page New Idea Browser frame
try putting your mockup into a mock browser frame. It makes it easier to grasp how it will look as a finished productSummary:
Nice simple wire frame, but every piece of text is wrapped in rectangle with rounded edges.
Serious Problem With only black and white, no written content really catches attention. F, T, Li : I'm not an english-speaker, so maybe this comment is not relevant, but I don't understand F, T and Li. Positive Feature I like the typo of the title. The navigation bar is clear and useful. New Idea We can't know in what part of the site we are because no word is bold (or other marker) in the navigation bar. Summary:
If you want a clean and simple design, you have it. You could add more focus on certain parts to improve navigation and direct attention to crucial points, rather than solve attention everywhere on the page.
Minor Problem on The Home Page 1 This shouldnt be a menu item, this should be visible as one of main navigation for site 2 Those two should be added to main page if this suppose to be simple and clean blog. No need to prepare separate site for those two. Put it somewhere on main page , best in footer to be visible in all pages 3 This is layout for webpage, not for blog. Blogs should be long, and its main page should already contain posts for faster browsing. You also miss columns for navigation purposes, you'll see that on next screens Critical Problem on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 Missing here, or on other side a column, with categories, tags, other infos, related posts - simple and well know functions for blog. Biggest problem is that i cannot choose different post to read now, I have to go back go Categories or to main page New Idea on Blog Post Page w/ Comments 1 Here's a place for some statistics, Like button , share button, social share links etc. 2 Add headline "Comments (12)" showing how many they are, or at least add statistics like that below post. Summary:
I see the point of clean and simple desing. But imho this one is to simple, which creates some issues. Check notes, not many ideas, most basic you already recived. My suggestion - google as many blogs as you can and see what is in common on their layouts/designs, then you'll know what you're missing here
Positive Feature For a simple wireframe ...
it communicates your intent well. I'm assuming you are showing content in the fonts you intend to use, if not you may want to strip it down to Helvetica or similar so that it doesn't look like you are showing actual designs.-
Sarah Kettell commented:
Thanks. Actually, it's probably not the actual fonts I'll be using. So early on in the design phase that I just needed to use something. :)
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I had considered using it as a slide, actually. But wasn't quite sure what kind of controls to put in at this stage of the design. I'm so used to having the visual aspects present when laying it all out.